Endovascular Techniques and Peripheral Vascular Surgery

Endovascular is an increasingly popular term that describes the use of catheter-based instruments to diagnose and treat vascular disease. Implicit in this terminology is its association with techniques that are less invasive to the patient than traditional surgical techniques. Endovascular techniques began in 1963 with the advent of the Fogarty arterial embolectomy catheter for removal of clotted blood from the peripheral arterial circulation. Shortly thereafter, radiologist Charles Dotter introduced the concept of arterial dilatation which was popularised a decade later by cardiologist Andreas Gruntzig with the use of a non-dispensible plastic balloon catheter. During the next two decades, endovascular techniques proliferated in the growing fields of interventional cardiology and interventional radiology, yet were embraced more slowly by the surgical community.